Disillusionment - Oneshot
by Touhoufanatic
Summary: Shinku is struck with Disillusionment about an event on earth and forces his way to flonyard to sunk in his lonesome. it will take one young guards captain to pull him out of it and discover the cause. but what will it cause? first attempt at this type of story, i would love peoples thoughts on it.


** note that i am using Cinque's romaji name spelling of Shinku.**

Shinku threw open the door to his room, stepped in, slammed it behind him and fell to his knees in the middle of the room with tears streaming down his face. The entire situation was sickening and he could not stand it. Everyone kept telling him the same thing and probably thought it was his fault. It wasn't, he had tried his hardest and it still meant nothing. He had failed everyone in their eyes and it pained him incredibly.

He needed to be alone. No one was going to help him, and just being near his family was causing him pain. He needed to get away. He slowly stood up and looked onto his desk where his paper with the Flonyardian alphabet sat beside Palladion. Princess Millifiori had sent it to him a few weeks prior to make the next summoning in a few months during their fall vacations go more smoothly, but being that there was no Flogna force on Earth, it just sat there as an ordinary ring.

Shinku walked over to and sat down at his desk, taking Palladion and putting it on his finger before talking out his phone and slowly typing in the forty two digit number to contact Ricotta.

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"This is odd," Éclair stated as she, Princess Millifiori and Ricotta rode in the Princess' carriage as Yukikaze had volunteered to drive.

The princess looked confused at the statement Éclair had made. "Why do you say that Éclair?"

"Because it is. Shinku wasn't supposed to be able to come again until the fall, so why did he suddenly ask to be summoned now?"

"I'm not sure, but he sounded a little odd." Ricotta interjected as she looked out the carriages window seeing a pink bolt falling from the sky. "Ah, he's coming in now!"

"Yuki, will we get there in time?" Éclair quickly asked.

"No problem," replied Yuki as she snapped the reins picking up speed until they got to the bottom of the summoning fonts' stairs. All of them quickly got out of the carriage as Shinku landed on the font with a small burst of light.

"Shall we go with you to meet him?" Ricotta asked happily, hoping for the obvious answer.

"Of course, I'm sure he'll be looking forward to-,"Princess Millifiori began before being interrupted by the familiar sound of Tornader's roaring jet. The four of them looked up just in time to be completely confused. Shinku catapulted off of the summoning font on top of Tornader and kept on flying, in the opposite direction, towards the forests nearby. In a matter of moments he had landed in the forest and was gone from their sight, leaving them all very confused.

"Um. What just happened? Why did Shinku run off into the forest?" Ricotta asked to no one in particular.

"I'm not sure, but let's chase him!" Yukikaze stated as she jumped off the floating island down a chain of them into the forest followed by Éclair and then Ricotta and the princess.

They all ran through the forest, just in sight of each other and kept looking for him to no avail. After almost an hour of searching the four of them converged on a small clearing and caught their breaths. "This is ridiculous, just how far did he run?" Ricotta said as she heavily breathed while she and the princess sat down on the grass.

"I know. We're actually getting close to areas where the land's protection is thin too." Yukikaze stated as she stood and looked into the forest around them.

Éclair walked over and stood beside her. "What do you think we should do then ,Yuki?"

Yukikaze sighed to herself. "I'm not really sure. I know Shinku can protect himself as he has Palladion on him. But trying to explain that he ran away will be a little difficult. We can't go much farther or it will be too dangerous as well."

"So you think we should head back then?" asked Éclair.

"Yeah, it will be too dangerous for us to continue without our weapons and armour. And we need to get the Princess back before everyone goes nuts."

"True. Let's get going then."

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Despite their best efforts at keeping it under wraps, within little less than an hour the entire castle was abuzz with the news that their hero had appeared then ran off into the far southern forests for unknown reasons. The Princess had become as frantic as the ministers had, though for different reasons, and would have mobilized the entire army to find him if the ministers had not stopped her. Instead a contingent of five soldiers and a squad of knights had been sent to canvass the southern forests safest regions, leaving everyone on edge. By this time, Éclair herself had found a quiet spot on the castle's walls and was sitting down thinking to herself when her brother came by.

"Worried about the hero?" Lorrain asked his sister.

Éclair, who had not noticed him walk over, almost jumped out of her skin before falling backwards, catching herself before hitting the ground and flipping onto her feet. She only realized who had spoken when she looked up a moment later " Oh bro, I didn't realize you were here. Sorry."

"It's no problem, that flip was quite good though. Your training has paid off quite well."

"Of course, I have to be ready for the next war. Did you need to talk to me?"

"Yes, are you worried about the hero?"

Why- of, of course not. Why would I be worried about him?"

"Then why are you up here sulking on the highest wall?"

"I'm- I'm just, thinking. Wondering why he's doing what he is."

"You're trying to figure out why he would come here on such a moment and then run off without saying even a word to his friends?"

"Yeah I guess so. It's not like I'm worrying about him or anything though."

"I see." said Lorrain as he stepped up beside his sister who was now looking out over the countryside. "You have a lot of vacation time left, correct?'

"Um yes, why?"

"Go find him."

"Huh?"

"The hero is not about to be found by anyone ordered to find him. The only way he's going to be found is if one person who truly wants to find him goes alone to do so. I'll cover for your work so you can look for him without worry."

"I, it's not like I care you know, besides where would I even start?" Éclair exclaimed in denial.

"You will have to figure that out. But it is likely if you talk to someone they may know what caused him to act so cold. I believe that you can find him; you're probably the only one who can. Will you?"

Éclair turned her head away from her brother and continued looking out at the countryside before steeling herself. "I'll find him. I'll find him and make him tell me what's eating him!" Éclair proudly stated.

Her brother smiled and turned around, walking slowly away. "All right then, I shall deal with things here for you so you can go."

Éclair watched her brother leave and then looked out to the countryside again. She needed more information on why he could be acting in the way he was. No one in Biscotti could probably tell, but she knew one person who might. Gaul Gallete. Considering that the two of them thought the other their rival it seemed like a good idea. And Leo had said she was free to come by and talk about anything. May as well ask her too.

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"Gaaah, all these back to back meetings and piles of paperwork are so tiring!" Leonmitchelli wheezed as she put down her pen and pushed away a stack of papers.

"I know sis, this is going to kill us," Gaul wheezed as he stretched out in his chair to one side of the room.

"I know what you mean. I wish next month's war would come faster. Or if something interesting happened," Leo said as a solider came in and bowed before the two of them when she came to the middle of the room.

"Knight Captain Éclair of Biscotti requests a friendly audience with the two of you, my lieges." The soldier said calmly. Hearing this, both Gaul and Leo looked each other and grinned. Their way out of the boring paperwork had arrived.

"Very well, we will meet her in the guest living room." Leo replied, causing the soldier to leave with the reply.

It only would take them around five minutes to get to the guest living room, but between the ministers trying to make them do more paper work and changing into more informal clothing it took them nearly half an hour before they entered the room. Éclair was sitting comfortably on a chair with a biscuit in her hand seeming happy just being there. The thing that caught Leo's attention first however, was that she was wearing her full knight armour, complete with her blades in their sheath on the table beside her.

Noticing Leo and Gaul enter the room Éclair quickly stood up and bowed to the two of them. "Thank you for having this audience with me, Leo."

"I should be thanking you Éclair. You've helped us out of a pit of paperwork." Leo said as she and Gaul walked in and sat down on the same couch. "So, is this something about the heart of a woman." Leo then asked, bringing up the promise the two of them made a few months prior during union fest.

"I suppose, but I mainly wanted to ask you and Gaul about your thoughts on something."

"Such as?"

"It's kind of serious so it should not leave the room." Both Leo and Gaul both nodded. "It's about Shinku."

"What about him?" asked Gaul.

"Is it about someone's feeling toward him, maybe?" Leo insinuated to Éclair, who just slightly blushed and shook her head.

"He called Rico yesterday asking to be summoned to Biscotti. We all went to greet him this morning but when he landed he boarded Tornader and shot off into the southern forest without a word. I'm going to find him but I was wondering if maybe you have an idea of why he would run off without a word?

Both Leo and Gaul were completely silent after Éclair finished. Both of them seemed deep in thought before Leo looked up to Éclair. "I know a lot about the female heart, not the male one."

"Oh, I see." Éclair said before looking at Gaul.

"Me and Shinku are pretty similar so I can maybe think of a few things. Did he say anything to Ricotta when he called?" Gaul asked.

"Only that he wished to be summoned. Though Rico did say he sounded down about something." Éclair replied.

"I see. I don't know. Maybe he's pissed off at something?" Gaul said as he threw his legs onto the nearby table.

"I'm sorry Éclair, if it was something about a different friend or your own feelings, I could help more." Leo apologized to Éclair who merely shook her head.

"It's not your fault. None of us have seen him act this way before. I just thought maybe you could help me figure out why."

"I could get noir and the Genoise to help you?" Gaul added.

"No, I need to find him myself so I can make him answer my questions. But thank you." Éclair denied as she picked up her scabbard and stood up to leave.

"Where will you go next?" Leo asked as Éclair walked to the door.

Éclair turned around and glanced to the ground as she spoke. "I may just go to the southern forest and look for him directly. I don't know who else to talk to about this, so it seems like my best bet."

Leo stood up and walked beside Éclair, escorting her out of the castle herself as she talked. "I see. If you think that is right then do it. But I do have a suggestion."

"What?"

"Go talk to Isuka or D'arquien. They may be able to think of something I was not."

"I see. I thank you Leo." Éclair said as they reached where Éclair's mount was tied up at the front gate of the castle.

"Don't worry about it. Be safe and do what you think you need to!" Leo called as Éclair rode off down away from the castle.

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By the time Éclair had made it to Yuki and lady D'arquien's home the sun was well on its way to setting, painting the entire forest in a bright golden orange. As she walked into the yard, she saw the demon king, Valerie, sitting on the front porch with a tray with two glasses on it. One seemed to be filled with wine, as he drank it prolifically, and the other seemed to be filled with orange juice. Finishing his glass and refilling it Valerie looked and noticed Éclair. "About time you came by, I've been waiting for you!"

"Um,.. all right. Why?"

"I'll tell you as soon as you sit down." Valerie said with a smile. Talking him up on his invitation Éclair came over and sat down across from the tray of drinks, and then noticing that it also had a large plate of cheese and crackers on it. "You must be hungry, eat."

Éclair took a sip of juice and then picked up a few crackers, stuffing them into her mouth, before swallowing and finally speaking up. "How did you know I was coming, and is Isuka in?"

"Hina, Isuka and Adel went off on Kronos to deal with a small demon she sensed earlier today. Tell me why did you come by?"

"I wanted to speak to Isuka about something and get his thoughts on it."

"Worrying about the young hero, eh? That's expected when he disappears so quickly upon arriving."

Éclair looked up in shock. "How did you,…?"

"Yukikaze told us what had happened. She's down by the river training, if you're wondering. Adel and I knew something was up before though.

"How?"

"Adel wanted to try doing star reading so Yuki and I showed her how. We ended up getting a show of an athletic festival that both Nanami and Shinku were part of. He didn't exactly do well in it."

"Just losing would not make him like this though!"

"True. Adel and Hina thought nothing of it, but I smelt something off about the way the contest he was in seemed to go."

"What do you mean, like foul play or something?"

"Maybe, he knows something no one else does. I'd be willing to guess that's why he ran off into the forest."

"I see." Éclair muttered to herself as she nibbled on more crackers and cheese letting the information she had received sink in.

"If you want to find him I would suggest you get into the forest and get looking girl. Or he might just get himself into trouble." Valerie stated with a smile causing Éclair to get up off of the porch and fix her clothing before turning to him.

"Thank you for your help in this. I'll be going to find him now." Éclair stated as she ran out of the yard and onto the forest leaving Valerie to himself who merely chuckled to himself.

"Good luck to ya."

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Éclair had been in the southern forests before, granted she had been with others and had not gone nearly as deep as she was now. The forest during the day had always seemed normal, now that it was night however it seemed completely different. Nothing seemed familiar, she could hear odd noises almost every foot she ran, and she felt like she was being watched. The deeper into the forest she ran, the taller the trees began getting, and the darker it got until she could barely see more than a few meters ahead of herself. The forest was becoming eerily more quiet as she got deeper as well and she could feel a sense of unease, probably related to a lack of protection from the land.

Groooooaaaaaaaaa!

Éclair stopped running and listened hard, hoping it was not what she thought it was, until she heard it again.

Gggrrrooooaaaaaaaaaaa!

Her blood curdled. A demon. A demon was in the forest. She needed to either kill it or run. Figuring that finding Shinku was more important, she nodded to herself as she began running again, until she head the sound of metal slamming into wood. Running toward the sound she could feel the demonic aura intensifying as she got closer until she finally came to a large clearing by a waterfall. Below the waterfall were two things, a small demon shaped like some kind of large monstrous bear, and Shinku who had his demon combat bright power arm and blade out and ready.

The demon lurched forward like a battering ram, attempting to topple Shinku with its sheer weight. Having seen this before, Shinku jumped high over the demon and swung his demon slaying skill down on the creature's back, smashing the bright power blade as it contacted the demon. He landed as the demon turned around and charged him again, and again he jumped over it, summoned up his demon slaying skill, and slammed it into the demon to no avail.

Éclair swore to herself under her breath as she watched. It was just like she had been during Union Fest. Her mind and emotions had been clouded and it made her weak and unable to use her bright power, and Shinku now had the same problem. Only he was up against a demon, not another person.

Realizing the situation, Éclair looked up again to realize that Shinku had been smacked by the demons tail and had nowhere to run! She quickly rushed out, summoning her own bright power, and sliced through the demon, causing its body to dissipate as it was thrown over the waterfall's pool.

Looking back, Shinku was on his back with his legs and arms clutched together to protect himself, tears streamed down his face and he did not look in good shape. With a quick poke of her boot, Shinku lowered his arms to see what happened, and then proceeded to scramble to his feet and run away, at least he tried to. Before he could Éclair threw her leg in the way, causing him to stumble and trip, falling on to the ground. Before he could get back up, Éclair grabbed him and flipped him over staring right at him.

"What do you think you are doing, Hero? Everyone is worried sick over you!" Éclair screamed.

"I, I just-"

"If something is wrong, we can help you know! All you have to do is ask!"

"I can't, I just can't, it's not so simple!" Shinku replied as his eyes filled with fresh tears.

Éclair was screaming even more in her head. He was being just as pig headed as she had been to Rico during Union Fest, but she wasn't going to allow it, she had to help him. "And what is that huh, tell me what's wrong!"

"I can't, it's just that-"

"You what, you failed!?"

"How-?"

"Valerie told me that you lost in a tournament on Earth. Why is something like that getting to you like this huh?"

"…fine" Shinku said as he pushed Éclair off of him and knelt on the grass across from where Éclair knelt. Shinku took a few deep breaths and wiped his eyes, then looking to the ground beside him. "I lost; I lost the Iron athletics tournament."

"That would not make you like this though. why are you so depressed that you would run away from your friends?"

"Because I'm useless. I lost, but I didn't, and I did not do a thing about it!"

"You're not useless, and what do you mean you lost but didn't?"

"I got first place, even Nanami thinks so. I bested Nanami and won the Tournament, but I lost."

"What do you mean?"

"It was rigged. After the declaration of the victor, when I was leaving the changing room, I saw a man talking with the Tournament organizer. hHe was thanking him for rigging it to make his own son win. I won, but lost because someone rigged the tournament!" Shinku screamed as tars began welling up in his eyes again.

"So they cheated."

"Yes, I lost because someone cheated and got away with it and no one believed me. Neither of my parents believed me, they said I was just being a poor loser. Even Nanami said that I should just give up and forget about it! I'm a useless acrobat who can't even make the truth be seen and a terrible hero because of it. It would just be better if I never appeared again and died in this forest. I'm so pitiful!"

Éclair listened to Shinku beat himself up and couldn't stand it. He didn't lose. He was hit by a cheater and was now beating himself over it and adding even more onto the wound. Éclair looked at her own feelings and knew what they meant; she wasn't feeling bad for him because he was a friend, at least not entirely. She was feeling bad for another more complicated reason. "Hero,…no Shinku!"

Shinku was shocked out of his self-pity beating by hearing his name called so suddenly by Eclair, who had always just called him Hero. She leaned forward and put both her hands on his shoulders and looked right into his eyes. Before he could speak or even register what was going to happen she pulled him forward and latched her lips onto his, forcing on him a deep kiss before letting their lips part as she then looked him back in the eyes. " W-what was that for?" Shinku asked in a panic.

"Because, you're not useless, Shinku. You are a great person and a great hero that cares for his friends. And because I love you!"

"Um, okay but-.."

"You're too dense, Shinku!

"W, what!?"

"You're too dense on stupid things. Every time someone here said they loved you they did not mean as friends Shinku, and neither do I! You're a great person, a great hero and a great man and I love you, romantically!" Éclair screamed as her face was turning bright red in embarrassment at what she was saying to him so loudly.

"…But, that- I, you, I -, I can't, I, I need to beat, - Nanami before-"

"Before what. Before you even think about things like that? You said it yourself, did you not? Nanami agreed that you beat her in the tournament. You've beaten her and you know you won. Even if it was not given to you officially you know you won that tournament, that should be enough for you!"

"But I-"

"You what, still lost. You know you won. Nanami knows you won. I know you won. And your parents probably do as well and that should be all you need. Don't beat yourself up over something that you can't do anything about and don't say you're a terrible hero and never want to see us again, that would make all of us sad, even me."

"But I-"Shinku began before Éclair pulled him into another deep kiss that both of them fell into.

Éclair pulled away and looked Shinku in the eyes. "Okay?"

Shinku was unable to look away from Éclair as he nodded, a blush filling his face as much as Éclairs did.

Éclair now finally looked to her side away from Shinku. "Good! Um, sorry about that."

"I-it's okay. So when everyone was saying they loved me…"

"They meant romantically, yes."

"And you-…"

"Well, that is. It's not like I don't have feelings for you or anything," Éclair said in a panic returning to her normal behaviour.

"I see."

"Yeah, so um, you know. Actually we should head back. Unless you-"

"What?"

"Er, never mind. It's just that I was wondering. If, you-,"Éclair began whispering so quietly that Shinku could not hear her.

"If I what?"

"Well, I, I'm wondering if the, kiss wasn't to, um, bad, or, never mind. "Éclair said as she stood up and turned away from Shinku. "We should get going!"

Standing up and walking behind Éclair, Shinku grabbed her hand and spun her around, planting a kiss on her lips like she had twice previously. Pulling away from the kiss, both of them were breathing faster as Shinku looked her in the eyes this time and said what he needed to. "Nothing was wrong with it Éclair. It was great and very good, and so are you."

Éclair tuned beet red and pushed away from him, turning around and yelling as she walked. "Stupid Shinku... we, we should get going, Shi,.. Hero. Let's go already so you can apologize to everyone.

"All right. Was it good though?" Shinku asked as he ran up and caught up with Éclair.

'Was what good?"

"My kiss to you?" Shinku smiled with unusual happiness.

Éclair's face turned red once again as she turned away from him "S, stupid Hero."

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Quite a few years later.

"Here Eclair, I want you to have this." Shinku said as he handed Éclair a black case.

Opening the case Éclair took out a beautiful silver ring with a small emerald and ruby upon the top. The gems twisted around each other almost like a yin-yang symbol. "A ring. So an item of promise then? I thought you had decided that you were going to be staying in Biscotti permanently?"

"I did. And it is an item of promise, to you and just you." Shinku said as he knelt down on one knee and looked up at Éclair as everyone nearby prepared for the day's war against Pastillage. "Éclair, will you marry me?"

Éclair blushed slightly and seemed flustered as she turned to her side. "d- Do you even need to ask that, Shinku! Let's go win this war and then we can talk about it." Éclair put the ring on her ring finger in plain sight, making sure Shinku could see.

"All right." Shinku replied as the two of them ran onto the battlefield with big smiles on their faces.

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**Authors notes:**

**Okay first of all I have not really one a fic like this before so if it honestly sucks then I am terribly sorry. If it is good then I am highly relieved.**

**For those of you that love the Shinku éclair pairing as much as I there is the potential for me to continue the fic in the form of a full sequel series at some point in time. However that is not in the immediate future, though I would like to know if anyone would be interested in such a sequel. I would also love to know what anyone thinks of this fic of mine.**

**Thank you for ready this!**


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